The newspaper archives continue to be a wellspring of real science. In them you find the mistakes that were made, but also the lessons that should be learned so as not to make them again. It is incredible how forgetful politicians can be, time and again taking the wrong path in the belief that this time things will be different, that they will force the Spanish state to amend its decision because its representatives answer their WhatsApps and accord them a certain status. But history is stubborn, annoyingly obstinate and recalcitrant. It was on May 6th, 2006 that the-then president of the constitutional committee in Spain's Congress of Deputies, Alfonso Guerra, with his stinging and contemptuous language towards everything Catalan, said: "We have planed down the Statute of Autonomy". And he added, without hesitation: "The project that arrived from Parliament [supported by 80% of the Catalan chamber's votes] was absolute rubbish."
We would have to wait until 2010 for further news, which would arrive through the image of several Constitutional Court judges - Ramon Rodríguez Arribas, Manuel Aragón Reyes and Guillermo Jiménez - cigar in hand at the Maestranza bullring in Seville. There, behind the barrier, the bulls unraveled what the long and intense debates in Madrid had not been able to, and the humiliating ruling of the court on the Catalan Statute was forged, leading to the wave of protests and the first great expression of disaffection of the Catalanist movement. Transforming Spain, which, in parallel with achieving the fullness of Catalonia, had been the proclaimed objective of this movement for many decades, ceased to be a purpose. And from there the goals moved towards an economic concert, an own state and, later, the demand for a Catalan Republic. This is a succinct script, painted with a broad brush rather than artistic touches, but it is essential in order to understand why the Spanish state, that is, the Supreme Court, the public prosecutors and the so-called deep state have made mincemeat out of the Penal Code reform agreed between the PSOE, Unidas Podemos and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC).
Jordi Pujol warned when Pasqual Maragall launched the reform of the Statute of the risk that it would end up being a "shot in the foot" - an own goal. The reasons were very simple: far from improving and expanding competences of Catalonia, some of the existing ones could be put at risk, in addition to opening a confusing debate in which Catalanism would be stuck in the path of the inevitable steamroller response from Madrid. The will of the representatives who worked on the new Statute was good but the result was horribly bad. When all is said and done, the scenario is not very different with the reform of the Penal Code and its abolition of the crime of sedition, modification of misuse of funds and creation of a new crime of aggravated public disorder. There has been a mood-setting on a cosmic scale.
It is clear that there has been a coup d'état from the Spanish judiciary, if you can call it that, using ERC's expression, but this was already predictable. All of Madrid knew it. The Spanish government knew it. The two major parties, PSOE and PP, knew it. The Basque Nationalists of the PNV also knew and gave a warning. All the newspapers in Madrid knew it. All the Ibex business people knew it too. It was a dead reform, at least with respect to the broad package on the judicial file for the 1st October referendum. It can't be that the only ones who didn't know were the Catalans. At what point was it forgotten what the Supreme Court did with the leaders convicted in the 2019 trial? Or the various extradition orders that judge Pablo Llarena issued for the exiles? Because there was also a Penal Code there, which was distorted as much as was required so that everything that was being done would fit into it.
Now there's a new one and we're watching it being turned inside out as if the lawmakers had done nothing. That could end in an own goal. We are already noticing the first effects. And what effects! Nothing changes for the convicted leaders, for whom the public prosecutor's office requests a similar ban on holding office using a sleight of hand in which the old crime of sedition is replaced by the new one of aggravated public disorder. With regard to misuse of funds, the chief public prosecutor's instruction leaves little leeway in ordering that aggravated misuse of funds should be the charge, even if there was no personal enrichment involved. If the Supreme Court takes the same line, and nothing suggests otherwise, the 13-year ban from office applying to Junqueras and the 12 years of Turull, Romeva and Bassa will be maintained. Forcadell (9), Forn and Rull (8) and the Jordis, Sànchez and Cuixart, with five, will benefit minimally. In the case of Junqueras and Turull, the senior leaders of ERC and Junts respectively, they would be blocked from a quick return to an electoral candidacy.
In any case, the shockwave of the decree unifying criteria among the judiciary after the amendment of the Penal Code is much more lethal than a first reading regarding the former political prisoners. It would also affect the situation of the Republican leaders Josep Maria Jové and Lluís Salvadó, accused of abuse of office, misuse of public funds and disclosure of secrets, who had one scenario before them with the reform of the crime of misuse of funds in the new Penal Code and another very different one after the instructions from the chief prosecutor. The forceful position of the public prosecutors, as inconsistent as expected, undoubtedly upsets political plans. But the PSOE, after carrying out the reform, has left its Catalan allies at the mercy of the court's decisions, insisting that the October 1st referendum was not decriminalized and that its goal was to extradite president Puigdemont. And Pedro Sánchez has come out racing, like a hare, to preach this good news all over Spain. Whether it will be credible is another thing. But the problem is no longer his. Well, well, well: the same story as ever.